Integrated circuit devices are well-known in the prior art. Such devices or so-called "dice" are normally designed to be supported or carried in a package having a plurality of pins or leads. The package serves as a carrier and as a heat sink and is normally square or rectangular in shape. The packages, which include a cavity in which the integrated circuit die is placed, may be formed of metal, ceramic or plastic components. After the integrated circuit is secured in the cavity of the package, a component "lid" is typically placed over an exposed surface of the circuit. A bottom surface of the lid includes a "pre-form" material such as epoxy or solder that is used to secure the lid over the circuit to provide a protective cover. The pre-form is cured by placing the package in a furnace.
Packaging unusable dice which must be scrapped after testing is inefficient and costly. Accordingly, the dice are often tested for continuity during the manufacturing process. This has been accomplished by placing dice in temporary packages and subjecting the assembled package to extensive testing, which includes burn-in and discrete testing. Discrete testing includes testing the devices for speed and for errors which may occur after assembly and after burn-in. Burn-in testing accelerates failure mechanisms such that devices which have the potential to fail later but which failure would not otherwise be apparent at nominal test conditions can be eliminated.
However, testing unpackaged dice requires a significant amount of handling. The temporary package must not only be compatible with test and burn-in procedures, but must also secure the die without damaging the die at the bond pads or elsewhere during the process. Bonds pads are conductive areas on the face of the die which are used as an interconnect for connecting the die circuitry to the package. The positioning of the die within the cavity of the temporary package is therefore critical since the placement of the die bond pads relative to the temporary package electrical interconnects must be properly aligned in order to subject the die to such extensive testing.
Precising die packaging includes mechanically locating a component in a precise position or placement. Various "precising" methods for this purpose are known in the art. However, there have been several problems associated with such precising methods and systems. For example, it has been difficult to position the die bond pads in electrical contact with temporary package electrical interconnects in an accurate and consistent manner so as to facilitate a high volume, continuous manufacture of temporary packages. Another disadvantage associated with the prior art is that the die is often destroyed upon contact with the temporary package. Moreover, a significant investment in the costly integrated circuit device is often lost when the positioning of the die within the temporary package is not properly aligned. Accurate placement and positioning of the die in the temporary package is thus critical to providing acceptable results.
One attempt to overcome the problems associated with the prior art has been to precise die and packages by mechanical fixturing. However, assembly tolerances used in mechanical fixturing techniques are often insufficient to prevent improper alignment. Mechanical fixturing also leads to damage of the die or temporary package. While such techniques have proven useful in improving the accuracy and reliability of the dice placement, these techniques do not enable dice to be precisely positioned within temporary packages in a manner that allows production efficiencies capable of supporting large volume operations.
Accordingly, there remains a long-felt need in the semiconductor industry to provide for improved methods and apparatus for manufacturing integrated circuit temporary packages in a high volume, cost-efficient and reliable manner which includes automatically positioning integrated circuit dice within the temporary packages such that dice bond pads are in electrical contact with temporary package electrical interconnects to allow extensive testing to be performed.